Salvation: A Story of Three Lost Youths
by TheMadChemist
Summary: Nanoha grew up in an abusive household. Eventually through her magical adventures with Yuuno she is whisked away from the pain and with her friends discovers the meaning of her existence. Rating T but themes will be dark at times.


Salvation: A Story of Three Lost Youths

Chapter 1: To Help and Be Saved

I'm Nanoha and for the longest time I've been uncertain exactly where I belonged. There are so many people who live under this blue sky and many of them live so happily. Happiness is something I really didn't understand before today.

After school I always got to watch as my classmates got picked up by their parents, something mine would never do for me. My parents had always told me I was an accident, a result of a defective product or something that was supposed to keep mom from having kids. If you would ask dad he would say I was a "financial burden"; although, I'm not sure what exactly he means I've never cost them much money. Perhaps, it is better to say they never spent any on me. The only clothes I ever got were my sister's old ones, and I slept on the floor with a blanket and pillow she had long since outgrown.

I had friends but I don't know that we've honestly ever understood each other. Although we lived but a few blocks from each other, the distance between us seemed to be measured in astronomical units. It's the only unit I've learned of in school that seems appropriate; our worlds seem to be entirely different. It's odd, millions of people live in this town, yet sometimes it seems I'm alone.

Each day I woke up, went to school, and worked at our family's business, the Modoriya, in the back where I wouldn't be seen. Life was simple; if I worked hard enough, I didn't get hit. And for me that was how it was. Part of life was that I wasn't always a good worker. No matter how battered I would end up at the end of the day, I would wake up unbruised or rather seemingly untouched. When other kids got hurt the wound would be there for a long time, but for me they healed quickly; I should have realized then that I was different.

On my way home from school one day, well I was going home my friends were going to cram school as their parents spent the money to help them succeed, from school my friends were chatting happily. Eventually we settled into a comfortable silence. As we continued down the road my mind was hit with a vision of a boy being attacked and getting hurt. I had dreamed a similar dream the night before and noted that I was in the place from my dreams.

"Please help me," a voice in my head begged.

I paused and looked around. Seeing nothing I turned to my friends.

"Alisa-chan Suzuka-chan did you hear that?" I asked

"Nanoha it's not good that you're hearing things. You need to stop working at the Modoriya all the time." Alisa told me.

"I have to work there; otherwise, my dad will get mad and I don't want to let that happen." I explained trying to calm down Alisa.

Shortly after the conversation we reached the point where we had to split up due to our different destinations. As soon as my friends were out of sight I ran back to where I'd heard the voice. After looking for a while I found a ferret, wounded in a clearing. As I looked at him I heard the voice again.

"You can hear me?" The voice asked weakly. Not knowing what else to do I nodded and the animal looked happy.

"How are you talking to me in my mind?" I asked curiosity having gotten the better of me.

"It's telepathy. The ability to create and hear telepathic messages is common to all mages." The ferret explained.

I looked at the wounded animal in confusion before telling him, "But I'm not a mage I don't know any magic."

"You may not know any magic but I can feel an amazing amount of mana, magical energy, coming off of you. I'll prove it try to speak to me with telepathy. Just speak to me with your heart; if you will it, it will happen." He encouraged.

And so I attempted it. "Um can you hear me?" I thought. To my surprise I heard him reply, "Yes that's right I can hear you."

Suddenly I had a realization. "When I came by here earlier you were asking for help what can I do I can see you're hurt. So how do I help you?" I asked.

"Don't worry about the wound as long as I get somewhere safe I'll be able to heal it. With what I have to do I can't afford to be caught up in a vet's office or a hospital. I'm going to need your help with some things until my magic comes back. If someone doesn't do what I was doing a lot of people could die. So please if you could I'd be grateful." He pleaded.

"I couldn't leave you to this on your own, so I'll help." I answered with a smile. Despite my rough home life I'd always had what some might call an empathy with others and could never resist helping them. I never really knew what I wanted to do; however, at that point I understood that I wanted to help people. I couldn't explain but as I offered my help, I felt that I had begun on the path of destiny that would take me to my true calling.

Eventually we relocated to an unused room in my house so we could make our introductions. Luckily my parents were still working and with the neighbors suspicious about my treatment I was getting a couple days off from working the store. I thanked god for small miracles.

After I set him down I made my introduction. "My name's Nanoha Takamachi."

He responded similarly. "I'm Yuuno Scrya."

"Well, if you're going to be with me for awhile why don't you tell me about yourself Yuuno-san," Nanoha suggested.

And so Yuuno told me about the Scrya clan, his work, and the jewel seeds. I listened with rapt attention. As he told me about his responsibility to recover the jewel seeds I saw the determination in his eyes, and I wished could have eyes as sure as his.

"Takamachi-san if…" Yuuno began but I cut him off, "Please use my first name."

"Um Nanoha-san if it's not too much to ask could you tell me a bit about yourself," Yuuno shyly requested. At his request I turned my eyes down. It was tempting to tell him everything, but his problems were big enough he didn't need mine. Still seeing someone so honestly interested in me I couldn't bring myself to say nothing, so I settled for half truths.

"I guess you could say I'm a bit of a loner. I don't want to be, but there just never seems to be a place for me. Even in my family it seems like I don't belong. I have some friends, although they don't really seem to understand me." I explained. Yuuno appeared to be disturbed by some of the things I said.

Yuuno looked at me for a few seconds before speaking. "Nanoha-san, please take the jewel you see wrapped around my neck. This is a device and it will allow you to use your magic fully. I was going to use it but we're too incompatible."

As I grabbed the device I came to learn was named Raising Heart, Yuuno began my magical instruction. He seemed to believe that I was talented at magic. I wonder how true that is. If it is true, however, I'm glad to finally be good at something.

My instruction was interrupted when I heard the front door slam open. I quickly rushed Yuuno to transform in his ferret form and hide. He listened, though reluctantly. This sound wasn't new; I knew exactly what it meant. Dad was angry and he was mad at me. I met him in the living room, facing my punishments usually made them shorter; I think having to look for me made him angrier the longer it took. He leveled a cold, angry glare at me that I couldn't help but shy away from.

"At least you're willing to own up to your failure," My father admonished. "You allowed your friends to believe that you are being forced to work long hours by me."

"I tried to explain it away," I reasoned, "but they made up their own minds."

"I am aware of your inability to be the least bit persuasive in these manners. Because of you the neighbors are once again suspicious about how I am treating you." He raged with increasing volume.

At the end of his rant, my father brought back his fist and delivered a harsh blow to my face that knocked me to the ground. As I began to lift myself up he delivered a vicious kick to my stomach. As he prepared to kick me again a boy about my age appeared in front of me. He held out his hand and blue chains bound my father sparing the boy and myself more pain.

My irate father got a funny look in his eye. "You leave my house and take my worthless daughter with you. I won't allow the practice of witchcraft in my house." He ordered the boy in front of me.

My father continued to rant, "I had hoped to keep her from her fate of damnation as a witch, but now that she knows I will no longer tolerate her presence."

The young boy carefully picked me up and raced out of the household, visibly saddened. The door behind us slammed and my father's irate screams faded away. He carried me to the clearing where I met Yuuno earlier before setting me down and speaking to me.

"Nanoha-san are you okay?" He asked. "I'm Yuuno in case you don't recognize me."

"I'm fine. My stomach just hurts really badly." I rasped out as best I could.

"I'm sorry for getting you kicked out of…" Yuuno began before I interrupted him.

"It's not your fault. They were threatening to do this for a while." I consoled.

It was odd the way he looked at me. He understood and he cared. No matter what happened later having someone understand me made me happier than I've ever been.

"Nanoha-san if you can't find a place to stay then you're welcome to stay with me at my place. My parents died when I was young but they did leave me their home and possessions. My clan took me in and I know that they'll be more than willing to allow you to live with us." Yuuno offered.

Yuuno was helping to stand up when he froze. I felt something coming and horrible ringing sound hurt my ears. Yuuno looked like he felt the same thing.

"Yuuno-san is that one of those jewel seeds that you told me about earlier?" I asked.

"Yes." He replied, "Do you remember how to activate Raising Heart?"

"I think so," I answered. I concentrated but for the life of me couldn't remember the incantation. Looking at the red orb I felt that it and I could understand each other and tried the only thing I could think of.

"Raising Heart, please." I said with fear as the monster got closer but apparently this was enough as I heard a mechanical voice respond, "Stand by. Ready. Set up."

As the staff fell into my hands and I gawked at my new clothes Yuuno urgently reminded me to seal the jewel seed as he had explained earlier. Looking at the violent, shapeless creature I was more than happy to do the job.

"Lyrical. Magical. Jewel seed seal." I exclaimed and with that I reduced the creature down to a jewel which I stored in Raising Heart as Yuuno had instructed me earlier. Although I had sealed the jewel seed before much time passed the creature still left a decent circle of destruction from where it lunged at me. I heard the sirens in the distance but I before I could say anything I saw Yuuno collapse. Hurting and tired I too passed out with the police just arriving.

Authors Notes: For some reason I felt compelled to write my own darker variation on this show. For those concerned there will be an explanation for the cruelty of Nanoha's parents. Watching Nanoha her parents always seemed very neglectful and showed an alarming lack of care for her well being. Case in point Nanoha says she has to go do something dangerous and her parents let her go no questions asked. So I decided to transform neglect into abuse and drew a little inspiration from history (hint hint). I really feel bad for hurting Nanoha and I really hope she doesn't want to befriend me for this ;). I know it's a bad joke. Please leave a review or visit my profile and participate in a poll I set up to gather people's opinions on my writing.


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